Rotary printing press



Sept. 23, 1941.

M. w. BRUESHABER ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Filed Nov. 12, 1938 ATToRNEYsPatented Sept. 23, 1941 ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Martin W. Brueshaber,Chicago, Ill., assignor to The Goss Printing Press Company, Chicago,111.,

a corporation of Illinois Application November 12, 1938, Serial No.240,039

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to fast rotary printing presses and moreparticularly to fast rotary relief presses adapted to print withexceedingly quick-drying inks.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in parthereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned bypractice with the invention, the same being realized and attained bymeans of the instrumentalities and comb nations pointed out in theappended claims.

The invention consists in the novel parts, construction, arrangements,combinations and improvements herein shown and described.

The accompanying drawing, referred to herein and constituting a parthereof, illustrates one embodiment of the invention, and together withthe description, serves to explain the principles of the invention.

The drawing snows a side elevation of a typical embodiment of thepresent invention and illustrative of the manner in which the inventionmay be applied to a rotary perfecting press, in this figure certainparts being broken away.

The present invention has for its object the provision of a novel andimproved inking mechanism for high speed rotary relief presses. Anotherobject is the provision of an inking mechanism for a relief press whichis adapted to be used with exceedingly quick drying inks. another objectis the provision of a simple, relief inking apparatus in which the inkis substantially enclosed and kept from contact with fresh air afteritis removed from the fountain and until it is applied to the stereotypeor other printing plate.

Heretofore, in the printing of stereotype and other reliefplates onrotary presses, the ink has been allowed to have free contact with theatmosphere as soon as it has been applied to the ink drum and until. ithas been applied to the printing plate. Furthermore, the speed ofprinting, and particularly in multi-color work, has been largely limitedby the time required for the inks to dry in passing through the press.It has been common practice to dry the sheets between successiveimpressions, so as to avoid wet-printing, or superposing the colors oneach other without drying, and this has necessitated running the sheetsthrough the press four times, creating serious diificulties withregister when the temperature or humidity varies between theimpressions. It has not been practical, heretofore, to drythe colorsbetween impressions in high speed printing inasmuch as the distance theweb travels 53 thereon.

Still between successive impressionsis generally less than the distancethe ink travels from the fountain to the point of impression.

In accordance with the present invention, many of these difficulties arelargely overcome and the others eliminated; and it is possible to useextremely c'uick drying inks, and even to dry the impressions. prior tothe next impression, thus obtaining the advantages of this type ofprinting without encountering the difficulties hitherto presented bythis manner of operation.

As embodied, the printing mechanism comprises conventional printingcouples adapted to print in one or more colors, and provided with aninking mechanism in which the ink is presentedas a film for only a shortdistance. The ink is preferably contained within an ink fountain whichis substantially air tight, and is applied to the ink drum within this,fountain. Thereafter the amount of inkon the drum is carefully andaccurately regulated in accordance with the requirements of the subjectbeing printed and is transferred from the ink drum to the printingsurface of the plate by means of form rollers. Means are also providedfor preventing free access of the air to the ink on the surface of theink drum and form rollers and for greatly reducing the circulation ofair over these surfaces,

thereby substantially preventing premature oxidation, evaporation orother drying action of the ink. If desired, means may also be providedfor substantially reducing the fiow of air over the inked printingsurface intermediate the form rollers and impression point.

To prevent accumulation of ink on the surface of the plate and aroundthe edges of the letters or other parts of the printing surfaces,cleaning means are provided for contacting the printing surface andremoving the unused ink therefrom. These cleaning means may comprise asoft resilient roller, as of soft rubber, rolling over the printingsurface with sufficient pressure to be pressed into the non-printingareas of the plate so as to remove the surplus or unused ink Indicatingmeans are also provided for informing the operator as to the level ofink in the fountain, and the fountains are preferably connected with asupply tank by means of piping so that the ink may be replenishedwithout permitting access of air to the fountain.

The sealing means and .the plate cleaning means are preferably soarranged and constructed as to permit of easy access to the platecylinder as -.is necessary for changing plates The invention is alsoparticularly useful in connection with multicolor printing and may beadvantageously used in connection with a plurality of printing cylinderscooperating with a single impression cylinder, due to the compactarrangement of the inking apparatus made possible by the presentinvention. Furthermore, due to the extremely short exposed area of inkfilm, the inkmay be sufliciently quick drying to dry between successiveimpressions, notwithstanding the short distance between theseapplications.

It will be understood that the foregoing general description and thefollowing detailed description as well, are exemplary and explanatory ofthe invention but are not restrictive thereof.

Referring now in detail to the illustrative embodiment shown in thefigure of the accompanying drawing, the invention is shown as ap-- pliedto a single color perfecting web printing press suitable for theprinting of newspapers from stereotype'pla'tes. As embodied, theperfecting couple comprises the two impression cylinders 4, over andbetween which the web of papers is fed to be printed first on one sideand then on the other, the impression cylinders coop-.

crating with their respective printing cylinders 6 on which are mountedthe stereotype printing plates 1.

The inking mechanism for each of the printing cylinders 6 aresubstantial duplicates of each other, and for that reason only one willbe described in detail. As shown in the drawing, a portion of the devicehas been removed from the left hand inking mechanism to reveal theinternal construction, while the right hand inking mechanism is shown inelevation.

Below the printing or plate cylinder 6 is mounted an ink fountain formedby an inclined bottom 8, side walls 9 and I0 and end walls H, beingrelatively deep and rigidly supported on the bed plates of the press.Rotatably mounted within the fountain is an ink drum I! which dips intothe mass of ink [3 contained within the fountain and serves todistribute the ink and feed it as needed to the printing surface. Meansof the inking mechanism, and an indicator is provided so that the pressoperator can readily determine the level of the ink within the fountain.This indicator, as embodied, comprises a float I8 floating in the bodyof ink. l3 and provided. with a guide rod l9 which passes through guide20 and an aperture 2| in the side wall' 9, which is a close fit for therod. The upper end of the rod [9 may be calibrated to indicate the exactlevel of'ink in the fountain.

Means are provided for substantially preventing circulation of airwithin the fountain and 'over, the surface of the drum l2 and formrollers l6 and forretaining against the surface of these rotatingmembers a body of air which is not constantly being changed, therebysubstantially preventing oxidation, evaporation and other deleteriousaction of the atmosphere on the ink either while it is .contained withinthe fountain or is distended as a film on the surface of the rollers l6and drum I2. As embodied, these means comprise a shield 22 extending thelength of the left-hand form roller l6 and pivotally mounted on theblade retaining plate 23. Shield 22 preferably is shaped to conform tothe surface of the roller l6 and at its upper end extends very close tothe plates 1 on cylinder 6, only sufflcient space being left between theshield on the plate to eliminate the danger of contact during operation.A similar shield 24 is provided for the right-hand roller 16- and ispivotally mounted on a plate 23' secured to the upper edge of side wall9. For enclosing the ends of the form rollers J6, end shields 25 areprovided and may be rigidly mounted on the upper edges of the fountainend walls II and are preferably positioned close tothe ends of therollers l6 and cylinder 6. Shields 22, 24 and the end shields 25 arefitted together, when in closed position, so as to provide a relativelytight closure within which are the fountain drum 1, the form rollers l6and the lower portion of the printing cylinder 6. I

Due to the rapid drying qualities of the inks used with the device ofthe present invention,

1 ink sometimes tends to accumulate on the sides are provided, which maybe of conventional construction and are not shown, for rotating the druml2 at a relatively slow speed compared to the speed of. the cylinders 4and 6. For regulating and accurately controllingthe amount of inkremoved from the fountain and transferred I to the printing surface, ablade I4 is mounted on the top of side wall Ill and extends the lengthof and contacts with the surface of drum l2, its pressure against thedrum surface being regulated by means of the columnar adjusting screwsl5 which bear against the lower side of the blade and are threaded intothe side wall I 0.

For distributing ink on the surface of the drum l2 and for transferringing from the drum to the printing surface of plates 1, form rollers l6are provided and contact with the surface of of the type faces of theprinting plates 1 and,

in time, will clog the printing surface and result in inferiorimpressions. vTo overcome this difficulty cleaning mean may be providedfor cleaning the printing-surface after impression and before reinking,thereby removing all surplus or unused ink at each revolution of theprinting cylinder. These means comprise a soft surfaced rubber roller 30pressed with considerable pressure against the surface of the printingplates 1 and'serving to remove superfluous ink therefrom. Roller 30 ispreferably mounted so that it can be readily removed to facilitateplacing and locking of the plates 1 onthe cylinder 6.

Optionally useablemeans are also provided for reducing the circulationof air across the inked surface of the printing plates 1 between theform rollers l6 and the impression point in the direction of rotation ofthe cylinder 6. These means comprise an arcuate shield 32 extending thelength of the cylinder 6 and supported by mean of a connection 33concentric with cylinder 6. At its ends, shield 32 is bent radially.in-

wardly to substantially close the space at the ends of the cylinder, andthe shield extends circumferentially from the shield 24 to a pointclosely adjacent to the paper web 5 passing over the impression cylinder4. When desired; shield 32 may be removed, oritv may be omittedaltogether in case it is rendered unnecessary by the particular type ofink being used.

For further protecting the main body of ink within'the fountain, anadditional resilient blade 35 may be provided and is adapted to closethe space between drum I2 and fountain wall 9. Blade 35 may be supportedbetween the top edge of wall 9 and the hinge plate 23 and extendsinwardly into contact with the drum l2, or close- 1y adjacent thereto.Blades l4 and 35, together with the fountain walls 9, Ill and IIcooperate with the drum I2 to form a substantially airtight enclosurefor the ink l3.

In the operation of the hiking device, thefountain is supplied withprinting ink to which an amount of drier, greatly in excess of the usualamount employed, has been added, thus producing'an ink which will dryalmost immediately upon coming in contact with the paper andhaving freeaccess to the air.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to thespecific-mechanisms shown and described but departures may be madetherefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departingfrom the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chiefadvantages.

What I claim is:

1. An inking mechanism for a rotary relief printing press including incombination an ink fountain, a fountain drum rotatable therein, a formroller to transfer ink from the drum to the printing cylinder of thepress, a scraper blade the fountain by the drum and means at the sidesand ends of the drum for substantially'enclosing the fountain; roller,drum and scraper to prevent rapid drying of the ink by reducing aircirculation. 4

2. An inking mechanism for a rotary relief printing press including incombination an ink fountain, a fountain drum rotatably mounted withinthe fountain, a scraper blade on one side and a sealing means ontheother side of the fountain drum and end walls at the ends of the drum,said blades, sealing means, end walls and fountain cooperating to form asubstantially airtight chamber for ink, ink transfer means cooperatingwith the drum and shields substantially enclosing the transfer means andmeans operable from without the chamber for varying the position of thescraper blade to regulate the amount of ink supplied to the transfermeans. 3. An inking mechanism fora rotary relief printing pressincluding in combination an ink fountain, a fountain drum rotatablymounted within the fountain, end walls at the ends of the drum, ascraper blade on one side and a sealing blade on the other side of thefountain drum cooperating with the fountain and end walls to form asubstantially air-tight chamber for ink, ink transfer means cooperatingwith the drum. shields enclosing the transfer means, and means forsupplying ink to the fountain without admitting air thereto.

MARTIN W. BRUESHABER

